WOOD

opportunities through the sales funnel.

The most interesting statistic to me was that 647o of sales managers believe buyers are treating their specific industry as a commoditized market. Aha! So the reality is no matter what you are selling, whatever industry you are in, everything has become a commodity, and therefore price rules. Well, that's that then. Or is it?

If your company adopts the mindset that all it does is sell commodities. then the price game will always be the answer to doing business. I do not think that is a satisfactory answer.

What differentiates your top outside salesperson from the bottom ones? I believe that it is not selling at the lowest price. The best sales people are entrepreneurial, truly understand the sales process, have great product knowledge, sell solutions, think customer. have great persistence. and develop relationships at all levels within their customers hierarchy, they think creatively, they prospect, they do not waste their time on lost causes. and not only love what they do, but they do it with infectious enthusiasm and a sense of fun. They also do it with complete integrity. They know intuitively how to move a potential sale through each stage and set the customer up to not be able to say no by creating what will be a win-win for the customer and their own company, and I bet they achieve a higher margin of profit than their counterparts.

Customers do not want to hear about what you want, they want to hear that you understand what they want. And while price may be at the top of their agenda, there is not one of us who has not bought something with fu11 knowledge that it was not the cheapest available. Availability, delivery, convenience, design, good salesmanship are examples of key factors in the buying decision. I have learned both the easy and hard way that while price will always be a factor, it is not the only deciding factor.